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I'm with you. I know it is expensive to build large engines but too many small engines working at 100 percent, increases the odds of failure.

A friend who was working in the design and engine testing phase said that it was a very deliberate choice to go with more engines/smaller engines exactly for the reason of what happened today. The ability to abort the launch AFTER engine start. This is the largest engine they can make that can reliably be shut down after ignition and initial rev up of the engines.

An uncontrolled engine is a constant fear among the designers; the launch vehicle depends upon exact control of all engines throughout the initial launch. If I recall correctly, it's less than a few thousand feet after clearing the tower that the launch vehicle can compensate for engine failures of up to seven of the nine engines and remain in controlled flight.

Thanks for sharing the above. For sure, they are committed to the 9 engine configuration for now. I was reading were this isn't the first time that they've had problems with the #5 engine over-pressurizing. I assume it is the engine in the middle of the pack. It could be some kind of fuel flow/starvation issue at maximum throttle or maybe some kind of exhaust back pressure problem from the surrounding eight. Throttling it back for the time being might be the quickest fix. Just changing out the engine might not help, since they've had problems with this engine in the past.

Some questions come to mind. If it's the center engine, it shouldn't be as critical for control as any of the others. Also, since they only had 1,000 lbs of cargo on-board, and the craft is rated for putting up to 5 tons into orbit, seems they should have had plenty of thrust available to continue with the remaining eight engines; especially if #5 is the center engine.

Do you know if all of these engines are gimbaled? Is #5 an engine critical for flight control?

My hat is off to them! They've certainly accomplished a lot!!

Thanks,